Two units of Rangers completed.

Last week I did a quick mixed post included in that was a unit of 7 rangers I had completed. I have taken some better pictures today along with the next unit that I completed yesterday, both are now headed for Ebay.

First up Rodgers Rangers in early campaign uniforms.

The next unit I worked on have been based on one of the many provincial units operating in the theatre.

These could be Used as either Virginians or The New Jersey Blues.

This is likely to be my last post this week as I sort my self out in preparation for the weekend ahead, I shall be collecting Kevin at 6am and heading off to Morecombe. We are meeting with James and his dad Paul for an intensive weekend of play testing. I shall ensure the camera is charged and reports are posted upon return.

Edwin is having a prize draw!!

Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist: Delayed Prize Draw (Yes, There are Prizes!):

I have been following this blog for a while now and Edwin is a thoroughly nice chap, who runs a very unique blog. It is this uniqueness that drew me in like moth to a flame and I have been hooked since I discovered it.

I suggest you pop across and take a good look around. You never know what you will find and you might just be intrigued enough to follow this unique slice of the internet.

I have my eye on three of the prizes on offer, but as I never win a damn thing, I shall just encourage you all to go and enter for yourselves.

Napoleonic Baden Hussars (Part 1)

Welcome to all the new followers, thank you for joining the longship.
I have put a new form for contacting me directly in place on the left column should you have any direct questions.

Soon to hit my workbench is a box of Perry Plastic French Hussars. I will however be building and painting these to represent the two units of Hussars, with a bit of clever work I should be able to get two units for our version of Black powder out of one box. The good thing about the Perry boxes are the abundant parts available to convert and represent hussars from many of the French Allied nations.

For the Baden Hussars the biggest hurdle I have found is the lack of any complete and definitive information for this regiment, I have a wealth of reference books and a few colour plates but they all seem to have conflicts within and a Google search only added to the confusion.

If anyone has a copy of the booklet by W J Rawkins - The armies of Baden and Wurttemberg I would be eternally grateful for a copy or a pdf as I have been unable to source this.  

However I will publish my findings here for my future reference and to help anyone who may wish to find some information on this unit themselves.

I found some reference material HERE and HERE. Neither of these cleared up the matter. So armed with all this information I have decided upon the following.

Plumes:
Officer: white over red
Trumpeter: red
Trooper: green
Breeches:
All ranks deep red. Gold detailing for Officers. Trumpeters and troopers yellow.
Campaign overalls:
A mix of green with double red stripe and grey with red stripe (as shown in the 5th image above)
Dolman:
Officers: green with gold lacing
Troopers: green with yellow lacing
Trumpeter: red with yellow lacing
Pelisse:
Officer green with white fur
Trooper green with brown fur
Trumpeter red with black fur.
Sabretache:
Officer green with gold edge and crowned CF
Trumpeter green with yellow edge and crowned CF
Troopers green with yellow edge.
Shabraque:
Officer - green fur gold edge ( sources state dark green or black)
Trooper - white fur green edge
Trumpeter - black fur red edge
Boots:
Green hessian all rank for dress uniform : Black for campaign dress

This should give me the basis for another nice colourful unit of the Napoleonic period.

50,000 Hits and Boobies

Last night my blog hit a significant milestone .  I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for visiting, commenting and interacting with me via this blog.

This occasion calls for a significant post and of course a give away would be in order.  I will need to think about what I shall offer for this and as several are currently running. Any competition or give away will be delayed until at least next week, as I have a very busy week ahead and next weekend sees us play testing the charity game.

However not to deprive you completely I offer you:

Once again thank you all for visiting my little bit of hobby space I look forward to hearing from you all as the journey continues.

Having a Clear out and other stuff

Welcome to the new followers this week, its always nice to have new faces arrive on board.

This week my focus has been on clearing some of the numerous projects on my workbench. My bench is a place of chaos and disorder and this needs to change before it drives me insane. Earlier this week I completed the display figures for Andrew and then decided to stay in the same period and finish some of the 14 Redoubt Rangers I have for the French Indian wars.

These 7 have been painted as Rodgers Rangers, they will not be staying in my collection as I will be composing my collection entirely from Andrew's miniatures, so will be destined for sale in the near future. I have another unit I am working on over the next week, that will be a unit of independents.

Recent changes in gaming have also prompted me to think about my gaming requirements and what I really do and do not need to retain. Having had a discussion about this with the boys who tell me they prefer the board games and smaller games to fighting it out with tanks, I have had a long hard think about my Flames of War collections. The reality is these will become dust collectors now as Kev, Glenn and Karl do not play this at all, and my gaming with Kelly and Craig is and will be sporadic. So I am going to reluctantly offer these for sale.

I have a lot of supplements and old rule books that I have collected for Flames Of War and these will head off to Ebay shortly. I have also decided to clear all the other rule books I have for games that I will no longer play, some are brand new, only having been read once and stored on my bookcase. I will resist the urge to continue collecting every new set of rules that come out for periods I like in future. I will be adding a new page on this blog as I start to sell things off in particular for painted figures, but I may list the new rule books here too so you can have a chance to purchase anything before I send them off to ebay.

The first additions to the page will be a couple of my tank companies that I built during last years painting challenge. I shall add more as I go through the collection and photograph everything.

AW Miniatures - Coureur de Bois - Display figures painted

First up welcome to the new followers, nice to have you on board and I hope you enjoy reading my ranblings.

This week has seen me at my paint desk most evenings in order to try and clear my backlog, and get back to some of my own projects. I have had a reorganise and cleared the figures from the desk, I have found that the more figures I have in various states of painting, the less inclined I have been to finish something. Instead I have been distracted and bobbing from this to that and back again.

A couple of weeks ago I posted the new Coureur de Bois sculpts Andrew had sent across for me to paint up for his display they can be found HERE. I managed to get these completed this week and based up ready to go into his display later this year.

Front and rear of the first three.

Front and rear view of the 2nd three figures.

I deliberately kept the finish on the bases simple so as not to detract from the figures.

The figures have been a joy to paint with good cuts and folds and great detail in the sculpts. I will be adding some of these to my collection without doubt.

Bloggers can win prizes

Just a quick post to inform you all of two blogs this week that have reached milestones and are therefore spreading the love of the hobby with some fine give-away goodies.

In no particular order:

The Laughing Ferret has no less than 11 items up for grabs and can be found HERE after reaching 200,000 hits.

Next up is Millsy at Canister and Grape who has 3 prizes in celebration of reaching 50,000 hits.

I wont shout about how much I want to win something, as with my recent run of luck I'm holding no hopes.

Hail Caesar Britannia - a review

Britannia a Hail Caesar supplement.

This supplement is dedicated to Romes invasion of Britain but at £17.50 it has a hefty price tag for what you get.  So what do you get for your hard earned ? In truth very little and I certainly would not have purchased this normally, but I am a bit of a rules collector, so I had to have this (see how they got me!!). This book offers Army lists for the two factions but as they are in the main rule book these are in fact redundant.

Now not to knock anybody especially the author as clearly a lot of work went into the book. There is a potted history of the Roman invasion and some recommended reading for the budding historian. In my opinion not enough though and I get the impression from the reading, the author had plenty more he could have added. I suspect it got chopped down in editing and publishing. The eye candy is a bit of a let down you will have seen most of the images before as very little in the way of new ones have been used for this supplement.

So what else do you get, well two rather nice campaign systems. These do make the book from a gamers perspective. One of which is map based the other a narrative campaign. The former has good clear notes and guidance on army composition for both sides, with flexibility to go large, by increasing both armies in proportion. There are useful notes on the terrain that you should deploy on the table to represent the area of conflict. The narrative Campaign is a series of 6 games that can be played either as a full campaign, 2 mini campaigns or as stand alone games. Hill forts are introduced here, and the rules for them are also included. For both campaigns the most mystical of figures are added into the game at some point and the Britons may use Druids on occasion to bolster the forces.

Summing up, for a newcomer to the hobby this is well presented and easy to follow and will get you gaming a period you may not be familiar with in double quick time. For the seasoned gamer in my opinion this does not warrant the cash as you will be able to figure out armies for yourselves and game quite well without it, and would be one to pick up 2nd hand.

I am not going to recommend this one to the masses as it is in my opinion overpriced for what you get, after all this is not a regular supplement for a large time span and therefore it only scores 5/10.

Last Argument of Kings - a review

So whats this supplement all about then!

This supplement covers the periods of conflict from 1690 through to the end of the Seven years war. The supplement opens with an overview of warfare and tactics in the 18th century. As is expected of modern supplements there are some very nice pictures of toy soldiers throughout the whole book.

There is a good section that gives an overview and good detail on the uniforms of the period. One of the reasons I like to play this period is the diversity of colour available to dress your toy soldiers in. Followed by 4 pages of special rules for the period.

The Army lists are clear easy to read and enable you to build a nice force to play the period or conflict you wish. These should suit the seasoned player or the newcomer to the period as they are very thoroughly constructed. There is also a nice amount of history to go with each list.

Armies covered are:

Britain, Sweden, Russia, The Ottoman's, Austria, France, Highlanders, Prussia, Colonial Europeans in America, Native Americans, Colonial Europeans in India and Native India.

So not every nation for every period but enough to allow you to game many periods armed with good information, they also serve as a good starting point to construct the minor nations if you wish.

Included in the book are 8 scenarios of some significant battles from the period, included in that is a rather nice campaign for the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.

Summing up would I recommend this even if I had paid full price. This is definitely value for money, well presented and a very good read. I am happy to have this in my library of rules and as I am enjoying Black Powder as a set of rules this is going to help. It will benefit both the experienced player but most of all any newcomer to the hobby or period will enjoy it. Black powder as a standalone set of rules can be generic but with these added supplements come the tweaks that adapt it to the period.

So yes I would recommend this one and rate it 8 out of 10.

Dynamic in the ditch

My Trial of Dynamic views is over, for me it was a personal trial, and I thank you all for the feedback. For the foreseeable future I will be returning the blog back to its previous format.

I decided to end the trial while I was away, as their are some compatibility issues that I could not resolve. While away I purposely did not take my lap top and relied on access via a couple of different tablets and an I pad. This exposed some big formatting issues with the dynamic views, and I experienced the bad waiting time for the blog to load images that many of you had mentioned.

I was happy with the level of customisation I had been able to place on the dynamic view, and I did like the simplistic streamlining of all the information although this took an enormous amount of time and a lot of custom coding which I learnt the hard way is a fine art when messing with the dynamic templates.

Blogging is a very personal thing and its all down to the Authors personal choice to a degree. That said for me it is far more important to share and record what I am doing and I want the readers of the blog to enjoy the visit as much as I enjoy publishing it. I don't want them to struggle to find things or wait an age for it to load. Obviously I don't have a problem with content as many of you have said that is the major reason for your visits. Therefore I want to have that content in a format everyone is happy with including me.

Page count had increased significantly but as I said before statistics are and never will be my focal point. So they don't factor into the decision.  Dynamic views may be the new kid on the block but they have limited functionality, and in my experience this block is not quite ready for it. What really matters is ease of use and that we all enjoy the visit.

So its out with the new and in with the old. Thank you all for the assistance it made my decision a lot easier.

More rule books bought!!

I have mentioned before I have a weakness for rule books and after my recent purchase of Albion Triumphant I decided to start collectiong the other books available for Black powder, The Last Argument of Kings covers several of our favoured periods of warfare, so when I spotted this on Ebay as a Buy it now for £9.00 I had to have it.

Now because of the recent project Both Kevin and I decided to add this to our Collections, as we will be playing Hail Caesar and the fact this has a few scenarios and a campaign system, makes it a most useful addition to the library, even better as I found a gift voucher I had forgotten about, buried in my painting cupboard at the weekend, so I reserved a copy and the wife collected this for me on a trip into town.

I shall give a more thorough review of both these supplements in due course and after I have had a good read.

Shiney bloodyitis has struck

The next couple of posts are automated while I take a break from hobby related matters. Normal service will resume sometime next week before the big play test more on that later.

It has struck again, although its been a while since I have succumbed to this particular infliction. For the large part of the year I have held off and not made any impulse purchases, however I have had my eye on this pick up and play box set for a while, with a similar concept to star wars X wing but set in world war two and unlike the aforementioned comes with 6 pre-painted aircraft that are enough to have a few decent two player games with. It is also an ideal game for me to umpire the youngsters while the shoot each others planes down. I will do a full review of this at a later date.

Next up though is not really an impulse purchase as I am building an Ancient Britons army for Hail Caesar, and while the wife was in town I asked her to pick me this box set up, to bolster my existing forces. This is a handy box set, containing both Infantry and Cavalry commands and some Druids which I will have to do something a bit creative with.

Going Dynamic for a test...

I have decided to try dynamic views on the blog as an experiment. After all "you should not knock it unless you try it" as my old dad always says.  I am trying to get myself more familiar with the google products and what dynamic views in particular can offer.

My own Dynamic duo who tell me they are combat smurfs

I have already implemented some of the improvements suggested, via google searches, to ensure loading and side bars work correctly. From here on it will probably either be a cushty move or I'm going to end up being a right plonker.

I am working on the gadgets sidebar on the right at present as they are not working as they should do however I will persist for now. I am quite pleased with what I have achieved thus far with the dynamic layout, and have been able to implement some customisation of the pages etc. Although I will have to find a workaround for the elements I cant currently add, and just in case you need convincing this might work. Here's some boobs for you all!!!

I would appreciate any comments positive or negative on these changes, to my bit of space. I will listen and if the majority opinion is that it is not working for you all then I will change it back to the more familiar format. However I want to give it a good chance so will stick with it for at least a fortnight.

Thanks for your time

Loki

I've been painting again

Having carried on with the painting after my long break from the table. I have been rather busy, a trip with the brushes back into one of my favourite periods. The Dark Ages I have a small commission of 42 Saxons to paint up for a customer who I previously did a lot of Vikings.

The Saxons are all mounted and primed, and split into manageable groups. They will be worked in a new production line method that allows me a bit of variety as I go. I also have some chariots under construction and in various stages of primingg. Yes I am stepping back in history for a new project, and into the British Iron Age, Kev and I have decided to start playing ancients again. Fortunately he had a lot of figures for just such an event, I have agreed to paint the Britons, while Kev will be doing Romans this project will be done at 20mm (1/72nd) scale.

So the weekend produced my first unit of chariots, I shall be basing up once I have completed all the chariots I require for the project.

Bloggers for Charity Book

Edwin King is a blogger and also sells old books he had 5 copies of The Battle for Quebec which he kindly agreed that all money raised from the sale of these books will go to our charity fund, over on the other blog I am currently involved with Bloggers for charity click the logo on the right and go visit if you have not been before.

I decided that it was High time that I purchased the book for myself. I have to say communications were excellent and the book was ordered, paid for and dispatched in very short order.

I will be having a good read of this while I am away for a few days. However what has surprised me is the fact that these were not snapped up in double quick time so I would urge you if you have a spare fiver and want to help out the charities then please follow this link and send Edwin a message if you are interested there are now only 3 copies left.

Scenario 1 of a Napoleonic peninsular campaign.

Here is the first scenario that forms part of a campaign that myself and Kevin will be playing over the coming months. Kev has been busy converting all his figures to play Black powder, after much debate we came to some conclusions on unit sizes and ground scale, the conclusions I have already posted.

This post is the notes for the scenario to give you an overview of the battle report that I posted yesterday. This was our first game after the amendments to test a larger game.

La Batalla de las Tres Variedades del Queso (hypothetical)

British Forces are hastily marching from the West and NW to Drive the French out of this Area. The important town of Queixo de Tetilla is the main supplier of resources to the Allied Army and is under threat from a sudden Large French advance into the region from the South.

British Objectives:

Queixo de Tetilla is the main objective giving the British 10 VP'S consideration should be given to the hills surrounding as they will offer 4 VP'S. Queso Ibores must remain defended if you are to maintain some control in the region. Queso Manchego would be a big Prize for sure but only for the Brave!

The British should note that they are out numbered, and should be thoughtful of the victory conditions and decide where to concentrate their forces. They do have some quality over the French, but those Frenchmen will out gun and have larger numbers of cavalry.

French Objectives,

Queixo de Tetilla is the main objective giving the French 10 VP'S and becoming the dominant force in the area as you will have gained access to good supplies. You must hold Queso Manchego and Pequenos Quesos.

The French should note you will have the advantage in numbers with both your cavalry and Artillery, but do not lose sight of your victory conditions. You will be facing some quality foes this day! Do not try to be fool hardy and try to capture so much you cant hold it!!

The Scenario conditions

1. The game lasts for at least 12 full turns, the player who has the highest VP total wins. On turn 9 roll a D3 the game is extended by that many evening turns, 2/3rds visibility

2. To capture a village you must occupy it! Even if it is being Assaulted when the game ends. The hills must be Held by a majority of your forces at the games end.

3. Both players score 2 VP for each enemy unit destroyed or forced to leave the field.

4. both players score 1 VP for each unit shaken at the end.

Game start:

British nominate 2 infantry Brigades units to start game and entry point. The remaining brigades should be noted with an entry point and marked 3 and 5 players choice.

French nominate 2 infantry Brigades to start Game and entry point. The cavalry must be marked 2 the remaining infantry marked 4 and 6 players choice.

On the nominated turn (3,4,5 or 6) the player must roll 2D6 for Infantry brigades, on a score equal / lower than command rating the brigade arrives. However only the commander comes on to the table you must now roll again for the brigade order.  If you are unsuccessful add +1 to your next roll. Cavalry will arrive on turn 2 but player must roll a d6 if he scores more than 3 only 2 units arrive the battery and remainder will follow in the next turn.

you can get all the notes, maps and force lists from my documents folder click the image below.

La Batalla de las Tres Variedades del Queso

Myself and Kevin had a day to ourselves, the weekend before last, Kevin had been busy during the week re-basing his Napoleonic's and wanted to try them out. So armed with Albion Triumphant and my own head I set about creating a campaign that we could play.

I have created  notes, map and everything to enable you to re-fight this should you wish and they will feature in a post tomorrow. Here is the report of our days gaming with Black powder with our amendments.

Before the battle begins!

Turn one as in most games was uneventful, even more so as both myself and Kevin rolled badly and did not manage to get all the initial troops to march very far onto the table.

A Lack lustre start for us both.

Turn two and the movement rolls have not improved

Things improved in turn 3 and I managed to get the French cavalry in place to protect Queixo de tetilla

 I had to stop the British Reaching the Main source of victory points if I wanted to win this game and used the speed of the cavalry to quickly advance and get into a position to hold up the British while I awaited Infantry support.

The fight Begins

 Kevin got the British into range of my Cavarly and formed Square, while on the opposite flank his cacadores were proving very troublesome to deal with and he was inflicting disorder on my new arrivals.

Adding some columns to the attack on the British flank

On the other flank poor command and good shooting by the British is causing problems getting deployed.

The squares open fire on the cavalry and advancing columns.

Merde!! those British muskets are effective

Finally the last French brigade marches onto the table

The squares withdraw but here comes the British cavalry

Both sides redress there lines as the French columns are beaten back by the heavy fire from the squares. 

 On the other flank the cacadores have inflicted a test on the unnerved French who retire from the fight. 

redress the lines

Time for a rethink as the French are completely disordered

Again the cavalry press the British Flank giving the French on the opposite flank time to reorganise

The French Infantry Have to retire from the fight but take Queixo de tetilla

Thr British Cavalry enter the fray

Re organised the French start to attack the other flank

The massed columns advance

Thr Hussars are getting cut down by heavy fire

One unit of hussars is wiped out and the brigades commander is killed, however the Britsh cavalry got to near to the lancers and were cut down allowing the lancers to fall onto an unprepared british line.

The French win the day but at a high cost.

This was a superb game and certainly played very well, The French had a weight of numbers that proved crucial to securing their objective. However the cost of the victory was high, The cavalry brigade commander died in battle and Le Creuset was left troop less due to being badly mauled by the Portuguese fire. Kevin played a blinder with the British lines pouring fire on the French and disordering the advancing columns breaking up the advance. The game turned on a knife edge many times but a lucky break with my lancers did it for the British, wiping out a unit of light cavalry before falling onto a defenless line this allowed me to get my columns in and Kev choose to begin a fighting retreat at this point a clever tactic as,he knows he will get reinforced for the next game, and the French have been weakend.